Global warming frightens even the baby in the womb. No one wants to be roasted by sunshine or swept off the earth by tsunami arising from extreme weather events. The sights of such events are frightening. Global warming is a problem of our civilization and we must live up to the reality. Just as we cannot live without products of civilization, so we cannot live without addressing the mess that comes from it. We cannot run away from the reality by fighting ourselves or by neglecting to act or pretending that all is normal or that environmental activists and some scientist are crying wolf wolf...

Farm mechanization - ecological paradise or disaster? Farm mechanization does not fall into any of these extremes. One cannot imagine agriculture without farm machines. It should have been like civilization without mobile phones and computer. The most civil thing is that mechanization should take into account the types of vegetation, soil, weather, climate, culture, traditions, economy, polity, socio-religious lives of a nation. They are all inclusive. What is good for Peter, may not be good for Paul. One man's meat is another man's poison. Indigenous engineers are challenged on these subject...

Genetic modification has not failed or entirely succeeded in the 21st century agriculture but is bound to stay beyond 21st century. The battle front is still hot. The stakeholders: companies, investors, farmers, regulators, government, consumers, media and the entire world population of over 6 billion with over 5 billion hungry are still at loggerhead on the novelty or absurdity of genetic modification. In view of the fact that majority of these people are hungry, and desirous of anything called food; there is every tendency that the micro GM patented companies and investors will carry the...

Food is very vital for existence of man. Similarly, it is believed that food is basic to world peace, security and togetherness. An adage says that "a hungry world is an angry world." It is impossible to imagine a world without available and affordable food. Generally, we tend to believe that food is not the problem but the purchasing power. Ignoring the fact that world currencies are not antidote to world food security. Global food availability and affordability is governed by law of demand and supply. In a world of over 6 billion people and maximum kilocalorie requirement of 500 per day per...

In developed world like the United States that invented cooperative extension services the gender disparity may not be an issue; but it is serious issues in developing countries like Nigeria. Most of the affirmative 30% women in socio-economic-political life are still in principle rather than practice. The same scenario applies to agriculture where women basically form over 90% of the workforce in planting, weeding, harvesting, processing, storage and marketing; yet are marginal groups when it comes to access to basic literacy, agricultural inputs, credit facilities, insurance. They are also...

Enzymes show extraordinary specificity in catalysing biological reactions. A systematic classification of enzymes has been adopted on the recommendation of the International Enzyme Commission. The new system divides enzymes into six major classes, which are subdivided further into subclasses according to the type of reaction catalysed. For example a recommended name, a systematic name and a classification name for phosphodiesterase is phosphoric diester hydrolase while its classification number is EC 3.1.4. Research into soil enzymes has increased steadily over the last 30 years. Various...

Living cells need a constant supply of energy, which for heterotrophic microflora is derived from the transformation of organic matter such as cellulose, proteins, nucleotides and humifieds compounds. Energy supplying reactions in the cell are redox reactions based on the transfer of electrons from a donor to an acceptor. Through aerobic respiration that is the oxidation of organic matter by aerobic micro-organisms oxygen functions as the terminal acceptor of the electrons. The metabolic activities of soil micro-organisms can therefore be quantified by measuring the CO2 production or O2...